Musings | The Hypnotizer - Connie Brannan, CHt's Hypnosis Blog

Musings

“Splurge, Princess, Splurge!”

Written by Connie April 26, 2011June 8, 2013

Hi, Hypnotic Friends & Enthusiasts!

This morning when Michael and I were admiring his wallet and the contents therein, I noticed this: a $20 bill with intense red lettering on the front: “Splurge, Princess, Splurge!” I said: “That’s for me!” and I grabbed it. (With Michael’s permission, of course.) 🙂 Immediately, questions and possible stories filled my mind.

How old was the Princess who was presented with this gift? Who was it from? Was it a single $20 bill or a stack of 20’s and/or other denominations as well? What was the gift-giving occasion? I conjured this: a little girl, aged 8 or so, given a no-occasion gift of $20 by her loving dad.

There’s clearly a story here! What it is, we’ll never know, unless someone reads this and recognizes the writing, and tells me. This is more than a story about a $20 bill, however. It’s also a story about the mind and how it functions.

It doesn’t end with the Princess and her gift. Between waking and work (about an hour) I was presented with at least 4 more “princess” messages–out of the blue. I turned on my computer to check my email as I do every morning, and there was a story about the upcoming royal wedding and Princess Diana’s legacy…a princess-to-be and a real princess, Ok. That’s 2, or 3 depending on how you count. (I didn’t read the story.) Then I got dressed, and remembered that my shoes are “princess” reboks. 4. And then the next one. I got in the car, and immediately noticed the truck parked next to me and it’s large sign bolted on where the license plate should be. It read: “I’m the PRINCESS – That’s why!” 5. Five Princess references in a just a few minutes–forcing themselves into my conscious awareness.

It must mean something.

I told the story before of how the universe gave me a message to get a new office space. I heard, and I obeyed, and I’m massively happy as a result. I wrote about the unconscious mind as a meaning-seeking device, making order out of chaos. What does the universe want me to know and/or do now regarding “Splurge, Princess, Splurge!”? Is it randomness and coincidence? Or is it synchronicity, and serendipity making sense of out chaos?! I choose to believe it’s the latter!

We all have something called “The Reticular Activating System” inside us, inside our brains. Basically, when it turns on, we notice things in our environment that are important to us, and give them an added level of attention. That’s a wonderful survival skill! 🙂 For example, we notice where in relation to our cave that the sabertooth tigers hang out, and we’re careful and watchful in those areas. I had a very active reticular activating system around spiders, for the decades of my spider phobia. Hubby called it “bug radar.”

Today, my reticular activating system got “activated” again, with a new noticing, a princessly noticing. As I was driving this morning, I found myself scanning every word, every sign, every piece of lettering and license plate number for meaning with a new intensity, to see how it fits or clarifies “Splurge, Princess, Splurge!” Nothing yet! But I’ll let you know, as I trust my unconscious mind to have noticed this and brought it into conscious awareness for a positive reason. Any ideas or inspirations? Share!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Musings

Happy Earth Day!

Written by Connie April 22, 2011June 8, 2013

Happy Earth Day to one and all. This is our planet, our lives, our time. Let’s make it be what we want, something beautiful and wondrous. Fresh & healthy. Starting with you!

Warm Regards,
Connie & Michael

Hypnosis, Musings

Shifting Reality

Written by Connie April 19, 2011June 8, 2013

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

This is pretty mind-boggling. 🙂 Look at this picture:

Is it spinning in a clockwise motion, or is it spinning counter-clockwise? Once you have identified the spin, reverse it. Just look at it, imagine it’s motion in the opposite direction, and voila! It happens. The direction of spin is reversed. You didn’t know your mind was so powerful, did you? (I did know.) 🙂

A thing is a thing. Or is it? The way we see it, well, that’s up for grabs. Spin your perceptions in a way that makes your life better! It’s all under your control. How interesting would it be to you if your problems became absolute non-problems? For example, if desire to smoke became “Who cares?” If lunch shifted from “I must eat cookies” to I’d rather eat a spinach salad. If the couch and a box of donuts shifted into “I’m getting my butt into the gym!” If fear of public speaking became calm and confident and articulate. Here’s what I know to be true: change your perception/thinking about things and you change everything.

Want to learn how? That’s where hypnosis comes in. Hypnosis and NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Change how you think and you change how you feel, and you change how you interact in the world.

The mind is powerful. YOUR mind is powerful. Let’s use it for life improvements and more success and fun. I’m game. Are you?

Warm Regards,

Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

The Magic of Positive Energy

Written by Connie April 13, 2011June 8, 2013

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

I invite you to check out this tree! I took this photo today, it’s of the tree right outside my office window. I look at it every day and I admire it’s lush, fresh, new and unfurling green leaves. New life! Spring time to get blooming! It’s beautiful.

These trees outside my window are my visual aides to story-telling as I engage in what is known as Ericksonian Hypnosis. Part of the hypnosis work I do: I tell stories, use metaphors, imagery, indirect language to suggest direct change. I love nature imagery. As I work with hypnosis clients, I often talk about trees–this tree outside my window in particular. I emphasize how natural change is for trees, how easy it is to let go of that which is no longer needed, how easy to embrace fresh new healthy life, the long-haul surviver and thriver qualities of trees. They grow more beautiful and stronger every day. As I tell these stories to my clients in trance, I am also focusing energy on the trees outside my window, and lavishing them as well with this “grow healthy” patter.

Guess what!? It works! This tree is evidence of thriving! This tree is amazingly greener, more alive and blooming than any of the other trees (of the same kind) that surround my office building.

Here is precisely what those other trees look like. More like winter trees. Spring has not sprung inside this tree yet.

That’s right! Kind of gray, kind of barren. What do you think? Could the focused waves of positive and healing energy emanating from my office and directed at the nearest tree time and time again really be affecting it and causing it to grow and bloom more powerfully than the other nearby trees? It looks that way to me. 🙂 And it reminds me of a study I read, about the power of emotion to affect water and crystals. It’s called “The Hidden Messages in Water” by Masaru Emoto.

I KNOW that with my clients healing happens in my office daily, and new fresh possibilities are installed as I tell stories about and I focus positive energy on my trees. I just never suspected that the trees themselves would benefit.

What do you think? Why is “my” tree thriving more than any other at the Alderwood Building? Look at these pics, taken today, and decide for yourself! 🙂

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Spring has Sprung!

Written by Connie March 21, 2011June 8, 2013

Happy first week of spring! I like the heavily transitional seasons best, fall, and spring. Where things change. Big time! We’ve got TREES here in the Pacific Northwest, and that’s terrific. Boy, did I miss them when I lived elsewhere in the country. I lived in the desert for years (Arizona), and there was a dearth of trees. Cactus don’t count! Coming home to Seattle was such a refreshing and green experience! Yay, Seattle! 🙂

Fall and spring. Trees tell the story. Fall is the time of letting go, which the trees manage in abundance and with ease. And now it’s spring! It is the further development of that process, the healthy fresh new life that comes as a result. My neighborhood is rich with pink blooming trees right now. Cherry blossoms, I believe. Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! Where’s my camera?

If you’re ready for some fresh, healthy new spring in your life, there’s a way to do that! It’s called…hypnosis. Let’s grow you something alive and beautiful. Something happy and bright. Look around you. It’s time!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Musings

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Written by Connie March 15, 2011June 8, 2013

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of our hypno-friends!

Shamrocks, the wearin’ of the green, luck, rainbows, pots of gold…it’s all good. It was also my grandfather’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Papa! What if “the Luck ‘o the Irish” were simply a state of mind? 🙂

Warm Regards,
Connie & Michael

Hypnosis, Musings

It’s Self-Reinforcing

Written by Connie March 13, 2011June 8, 2013

There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about hypnosis out there, there being the minds of people. It’s my job as a professional to set straight what I can. The truth about hypnosis. Yesterday I realized a new originating source of those misunderstandings – another local hypnosis provider. They’re giving out misinformation to their clients.

They’re selling the idea that hypnosis is WORK, something the client has to do involving their thinking/conscious mind. And do again, and do again. They’re telling them they have to consciously remember, and plan and make time to DO something on a continuing basis for the hypnosis to be effective. No! Absolutely no. A good hypnotist makes the change-work self-reinforcing. I sure do.

I had a spider phobia for 30 years. A phobia IS a type of hypnosis. In a single experience, I hypnotized myself into believing that that tiny little insect was immediately life-threatening. And my body would react. I didn’t have to DO anything to keep that pattern running inside me for 30 years. I didn’t have to remember to listen to a recorded tape every evening reminding me to remember to be afraid. How unnecessary would that be? VERY.

Patterns run in us until they are replaced by a new pattern. Hypnosis/NLP installs a new pattern. The new pattern runs. And runs. And runs.

Hypnosis changes the way you ARE in the world. The way you live and breathe. These changes are positive, healthy, and seamless. They are inside of a person. When done well, the change work feels natural and it fits with a person’s entire life. The less your conscious, thinking mind gets involved in this process, the better. You just find yourself thinking differently, feeling different, and doing different behaviors–all these congruent with your goals.

I’m not going to give you conscious-mind busy work to do and pretend that that makes the hypnosis “stick” better. That idea does hypnosis a terrible disservice.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Someday Never Comes

Written by Connie February 25, 2011June 8, 2013 1 Comment

“Someday.” What a wishy-washy weasel-y, weak word. Be wary of this word coming out of your own mouths or pens–because here’s what it really means: never. “Someday” is married to “I can’t.” They live unhappily ever after.

Movement forward is a good thing, in my model of the world. What I sell is movement, and change. Belief change, behavioral change. Life change. Useful and desired and WONDERFUL change. “Someday” is a holding in place word, not a movement word. “Do it!” “Doing it!” that’s movement. Someday…I’ll quit smoking. Someday…I’ll get my body in shape. Someday…blah blah blah. Someday never comes.

I love my teachers. One in particular, Dr. Richard Bandler, the co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming™. Yesterday was his birthday. He got literally hundreds of well wishes from fans and friends across the globe on his Facebook page. One girl wrote to him: “I will take one of your trainings and meet you someday.” I’m sure he was underwhelmed by that. I would be. It means “never.”

When I took Design Human Engineering™ with Richard and his co-trainer, John LaValle, last year, here’s one of the ideas that got well installed: “Just f****** do it!!” It being movement towards a well formed outcome, a goal, what you want in life. I hear John’s voice in my ear often, propelling me forward. I’ll have to thank him again for that! 🙂

My favorite songwriter, Smokey Robinson, said the same thing in a softer way in the lyrics of one of his best songs (More Love): “Let it be soon. Don’t hesitate. Make it now. Don’t wait…”

To me it’s so simple. If you want something (sufficiently), you do it. You make it happen. I don’t “do” someday. Why would anyone? Why not shift “someday” into “now?”

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Feel Good Spin

Written by Connie February 22, 2011June 8, 2013

Here is another video demonstrating the transformational power of hypnosis.

My mom was an artist. Water color, oils, mixed media… realistic work, abstracts, she was massively creative. She created many series of her artwork, including one I particularly love. She called it: “Loving the Spin I’m In.” I have several pieces from that series on the walls in my office.

Mom art Spin She was right. It’s all a spin of our own creation. She chose one that she loved. Me, too.

If you’re sick of the negative spin of your thinking and feeling, choose something different. Now. It’s so easy…with the tool of hypnosis.

Warm Regards,
Connie

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Hypnosis, Musings

“Where are the Tomatoes?”

Written by Connie February 17, 2011June 8, 2013

I have these VERY comfortable black leather Rebok shoes I love to wear. They are a happy medium, satisfying both my desires for a nice look and comfort. They’re basically dressy tennis shoes, and they have laces. I’ve never had trouble with those laces. Until recently!

Recently, they come undone. All by themselves. Frequently. It’s pretty weird, actually. One of my clients commented on it, told me that it’s because my shoelaces are just so RELAXED. Loose. Nice idea! That is a state of being often elicited around me. 🙂

The shoes remind me of a story of my little neighbor kid, who lived across the street when I was growing up. He liked to wander over into our yard and look at my dad’s tomato plants. (My dad grew the BEST tomatoes!) 🙂 Nosy kid. He had this idea that full-blown, grown tomatoes should pop up overnight. He’d come over and stare at the garden the day after my dad planted and ask: “Where are the tomatoes??” I guess in his model of the world, that plant “didn’t work.”

What if that plant is actually growing gangbusters, under the surface? What if the nicest, freshest, beautiful crop of tomatoes is forming, and will emerge soon?

Sometimes my hypnosis clients demonstrate a similar “all right now or it’s nothing” attitude when they come in. (They don’t get to keep it.) If it isn’t immediate and obvious 1000% success, “it didn’t work.” It being hypnosis. One smoker client reduced a pack and a half a day habit down to 3 cigarettes in a week, and reported: “I didn’t smoke in the car, I didn’t smoke at work, I didn’t smoke in the morning, I felt no urge to, but then my mother-in-law called and you know, I had to have a cigarette. It didn’t work!” Yes, it did. And it IS working. It’s a process of change. IT is not a finite thing, it grows and evolves, like a tomato plant.

Shoelaces. That “all or nothing” attitude would entail an awful lot of money spent on shoes. Your shoelace comes untied. “The shoe didn’t work.” Better toss that shoe away. Get some different ones. Doesn’t matter if they’re custom-made exquisite Italian leather, they didn’t work. They’re untied.

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply re-tie them and carry on walking?

The antidote to “all or nothing” is what I call a recovery strategy–and it’s something we install with hypnosis. So you don’t give up prematurely, as change grows. And you don’t let setbacks stop you. You don’t toss away the shoes, berate the shoes as defective or non useful, you simply re-tie them. And carry on. So it is, with hypnosis. Some change is instantaneous, BOOM! Like flicking on a light switch. Other change evolves over time, like a light on a dial control getting brighter and brighter and brighter. Both things happen. I’ve decided to cut my Reboks some slack. They still work. I just tie them and get on with it!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, CHt.

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Hypnosis, Musings

I Want the World to Know

Written by Connie February 8, 2011June 8, 2013

Hi, Hypno-Friends,

I’ve got lots of decor in my office. One of my favorite pieces is a wood block word: “BELIEVE” silhouetted against the window. Next to it is an accordian sign which reads: “You can change the world.” I do believe! Yes, one mind at a time.

One of my goals as a professional hypnotist is to battle the myths and misconceptions which abound out in the world about hypnosis. That’s what “World Hypnotism Day” was all about. Sharing the truth about hypnosis. Every person I hypnotize gets a much clearer picture of what hypnosis is, what it does, how it works, how it feels, what’s it useful for. And so on.

Because I believe so passionately in hypnosis as a force for good in the world–I want to share that message. What a bum rap hypnosis gets from Hollyweird. How underutilized and under-appreciated this magic is. It’s the magic of your mind to create positive change. And it’s MASSIVE magic. It’s you.

One of the ways I get the word out about hypnosis is through advertising. Here’s my latest ad which will appear next week in the Bellevue Reporter. I think it’s GOOD! I worked with the “creative staff” at the Bellevue Reporter to put this together. I don’t look like the devil with horns or three eyes or bizarre or woo woo, do I?

I grew up around here (Seattle), born here. And I’m actually quite pleased with the acceptance of hypnosis in this community. There are many, many thriving hypnotists and hypnotherapists around about. And that’s good. However, I have friends around the country and world who also do this work, and it’s not the same acceptance everywhere. Yay, Seattle!

To keep that good vibe around hypnosis flowing, I’m shouting about it from the rooftops. The Bellevue Reporter’s Feb 18th publication “Body & More” is my next rooftop. I also shout from Bellevue College, my own seminars, my groups, on the internet, to my friends, my family. I want everyone to know. Hypnosis works! Soooo fantastically amazingly well. For so much. Check out my ad next week, and other suppliers of tools for healthier, happier lives.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Forever Young – With Hypnosis!

Written by Connie January 29, 2011June 8, 2013

Are any of you on Facebook? They’ve taken to “customizing” your profile page to show you ads they think are for YOU. Yikes. They think I need some kind of face peel. Am I on the “geezer list?”

Here’s an advertisement/picture they stuck on my page. SCARY!

Don’t need this crap! Hypnosis is the best anti-aging agent around…you’ll look younger and LIVE younger, because hypnosis is the best stress reliever ever–and stress is what ages you.

Warm Regards,

Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

What You Didn’t Know About Stage Hypnosis

Written by Connie January 23, 2011June 8, 2013

Michael Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of NLP (tm)

by Guest Blogger, C. Michael Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™.

Stage hypnosis shows have always been an important way to introduce hypnosis to the general public. Many hypnotherapists, if not most, received their first introduction to hypnosis through a stage hypnosis show. Connie herself was first introduced to hypnosis through a stage hypnosis show.

Connie’s initial reaction, like that of many, was “this can’t be real,” and “they’re all plants.” That reaction is common because most of us are truly unaware of the power and role our unconscious minds play in each and every thing we do. In some cases, stage hypnotism evokes fear!

What’s really going on in a stage hypnosis show? How does what we see in a show relate to hypnotherapy? How does it relate to what we experience in ordinary life? Most people, including most hypnotherapists, haven’t realized yet that every phenomena experienced in hypnosis is experienced by everyone in their ordinary “waking” state!

I went to a hypnosis show yesterday presented as part of World Hypnotism Day (an event sponsored by the National Guild of Hypnotists, Washington State chapter). The response of most of the audience who were not hypnotherapists was one of fascination and interest. And the hypnotic phenomena are truly that.

The hypnotist performed a lot of skits, all displaying the power of the unconscious mind to control our bodies, to enter imaginative realms of fantasy and to access our minds in ways we perhaps didn’t know we could. Stage hypnosis shows are a powerful presentation of the power of the unconscious mind!

In one skit, the hypnotist created amnesia for the number 7, and had the participant then count the number of his fingers. The participant counted..1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11….have you always had 11 fingers? No, I only have 10 fingers. Anmesia can often be important. What if each time you wanted a cigarette, you simply forgot that you wanted one and continued with whatever you were doing? What if you simply forgot to eat all those unhealthy things that are keeping on those unwanted pounds?

And this experience is something we have in our ordinary life. You know that “tip of the tongue” phenomena? We know something, we know it perfectly, but just can’t get access to it at the moment. Students who study for tests and then “forget” what they learn during the test is common. They haven’t “forgotten” at all; they are just too nervous, anxious or something else to get access to the information. It’s easy to deal with: just give yourself a suggestion to remember, relax, and let your unconscious mind do its work.

The unconscious mind is extraordinarily powerful. It can give or withhold conscious access to information at a mere suggestion. Suggest the number 7 is gone, and, boom, it’s gone. Suggest it’s back, and, boom, it’s back.

The flip side is that the unconscious mind can give access to much more information as well. Suggest to yourself that you will remember more, remember more clearly and you will. In trance, people can recall vivid details and details thought long forgotten. With hypnosis, you can create states where that vivid recollection comes more quickly and more easily than you ever thought possible. And that can carry into your everyday life, allowing you to learn more, learn faster and remember what you’ve learned here.

When we say to ourselves things like “I can’t learn,” “I can’t remember” we are sabotaging ourselves. We are giving ourselves a suggestion, we are telling our unconscious minds to fail at learning, and to “forget.” And those suggestions can be just as effective as the hypnostist’s suggestion to “forget” the number 7. The unconscious is a humble servant–it will do what it is asked to do, so ask it to do things you want it to do.

______________________________

Hi, guys! Connie here. Learn more about this fun side of hypnosis here: http://www.onstagehypnosis.com.

As always, we’d love it if you’d sign up for our FREE e-newsletter, “The Monthly Trance.” Form below! It comes out (approximately) monthly, and lets you know what’s going on, hypnotically speaking. For instance, yesterday was our free World Hypnotism Day Event in Bellevue. The Seattle Times NW weekender publication declared it a “best bet” for the weekend, and yes, it was. Thank you to all who came out and participated. We’re so glad you’re getting to know hypnosis.

Warm Regards, Connie

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Hypnosis, Musings

New Year’s Resolve

Written by Connie December 30, 2010June 8, 2013

: Happy 2011 To You!

Happy New Year! Are you making some wonderful New Year’s Resolutions for 2011 for your health and success and prosperity? I am!

Yes, I’ve been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. And the word “resolve.” What does it really mean? If you’re sort of wanting something, thinking about it, but doing little or nothing to achieve it, that equals a lack of resolve. “Gee, that would be nice someday, but…” If you’re half-heartedly doing something towards a goal for only a day or two or three and then the desire drifts away, that’s a wishy-washy resolve. Like a slap with a wet noodle–not much power in it. I believe that half-hearted determination is what most people bring to their New Year’s Resolve. And that’s sad.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way!! 🙂 If weak resolve is not good enough for you, read on! Hypnosis helps you create something absolutely different. Hypnosis reaches into your inner workings and finds, reinforces and activates true resolve. True resolve is a whole-hearted affair. Heart and mind and body affair–every nerve and fiber of your being saying: “YES, I’m going for it!!!” Resolve and determination…think Rocky preparing for his big fight, eating raw eggs, and working out, running up those monument steps, triumphant (in advance) and focusing all his attention and actions on achieving his goal.

That’s real resolve. It’s power, because you KNOW you’re going to get what you want and nothing and no one can deter you. You do everything within your power and energy and creativity, with passion and motivation, to achieve it, that worthy outcome you desire.

Resolve is also a visual term. When things come into focus, they resolve. The blur resolves into a clear image. When you resolve to do something, your goal is FOCUSED. Sharp, sharp, sharp. Clear. Unmistakable. How would you like to be sharply focused and motivated and moving on your goals with true resolve? Yes, me, too.

Hypnosis, baby! If your New Year’s desires already have the force of a pure and clear RESOLUTION, yay! I applaud you! Go for it. However, if you find that clarity of desire unfocused, or the resolve is not there to give you that OOMPH, that go for it power of actual sustained movement forward, then hypnosis is a tool to help you do just that.

It doesn’t matter WHAT you are resolving to do, hypnosis can give you that directed focus and acceleration, like stepping on the gas pedal in your car. You select the destination, hypnosis is both the GPS (how to get there) and the thrust forward of stepping on the gas. Resolve. Rocky was hypnotized. He hypnotized himself into power. We are all capable of this, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to have a professional communicator help it to happen faster and more easily.

Personally, I think it would be a massively wonderful gift to give yourself for the new year: a super powerful hypnotic dose of accelerant for your goals, whatever they may be. Quitting tobacco once and for all, getting in shape, finishing that project, beginning that project, whatever you’re resolving within yourself to do and be for 2011 and beyond. The difference: with hypnosis, the resolve STICKS, long and strong enough to get what you want. How cool is that?

Resolve to make 2011 your best year ever, and begin to realize the control you do have over your life. Over your actions, your habits, your very thoughts.

Warmest Regards,
Connie

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Hypnosis, Musings

It’s Just My Imagination

Written by Connie December 20, 2010June 8, 2013 1 Comment

“Imagination.” The other day I was driving and musing on words. Words are, and have always been, “my thing.” I love them! When I was very young I’d sit and read the dictionary for enjoyment. And, words are also the lifeblood of my career as a professional communicator.

Hypnosis is communication, on the deepest levels of the heart and mind. 🙂 I was musing in particular on the word “imagination.”

I was remembering how that word was used disparagingly when I was growing up. “Well, she has QUITE an imagination, that one.” (She’s lying.) “It’s only your imagination.” (You’re wrong.) “He’s imagining things again!” (How can we get him back on track?) When someone says: “It’s JUST your imagination!”, they’re using the word “just” as a minimizer. Expressing a lessening of value. Why minimize magnificence? In my book, imagination is absolutely essential to life and success. It is something to be nurtured and appreciated, not treated as a problem.

Dream Imagine Relax Einstein had it right when he said: “Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” I absolutely agree.

To any of you that have been in my office, perhaps you noticed the wood blocks on the wall: dream, imagine, relax. Of those 3, imagine is the most important! Why? In our world, what we imagine successfully is what we get. It’s integral to creation. Why would anyone want to stomp down on or minimize or belittle the ability to create? Hypnosis helps that act of creation to flourish.

How strange that imagine-ary means unreal when in truth imagine-ation makes things real.

Warm Regards & Happy Holidays to all,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

“Big Ass” Cookie

Written by Connie November 24, 2010June 8, 2013

Ok, this question is to the myriad of you (and I’m one as well) who battle with weight. What do you do when you slip up? When you fall off the “being good” wagon? When that holiday treat calls to you, and you listen? Do you beat yourself up? Do you say: “Well, the day is shot, the week is shot, I might as well eat another brownie and/or piece of pizza and I’ll start again Monday!”? Do you say: “Well, I failed, best forget the whole idea of ever getting thin!!” Or do you say: “Well, I did that. It was a choice. I’d rather choose and do something different, starting NOW.”?

The topic is recovery strategies. You’ve got to shift your perception from diets, which tend to be all or nothing mindsets (you’re ON the diet, or you’re OFF the diet) to a lifestyle change orientation. Success does not equal perfection. Hypnosis helps! Even if you make a decision you don’t like, you get to make a new one, and continue from there. This essay is about cutting yourself some slack when you “goof up” (as we all do) and then continue your long term success. I’ve lost 80+ pounds in the past couple years. Is that success? Hell, yes! Was I perfect in my eating choices every moment of every day of that time? Hell, no.

I’m going to tell the story of my own recent slip-up. And recovery! I call this story: “Big ass” cookie. My teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, encourages us to make large, rich, 3D, vibrant goal pictures in our minds to motivate us to move in those desired directions. He calls those: “big ass pictures.” Somehow, that phrase has embedded itself into my mind. So, I use it, too, even if it’s slightly vulgar. I’m going to tell the story, now, of the “big ass cookie.” It wasn’t just a picture. It was a reality.

We all have triggers in us, unconscious or conscious imprinted motivators which propel us into action. I have an “eat sweets” trigger: it’s called “Halloween.” I have another: it’s called “I’m on vacation, and it’s time to indulge myself.” I have another: it’s called “I’ve been working really hard so I deserve it.” I have another: it’s called “I’m on sale, buy me.” All of these converged a few weeks ago while I was in Chicago.

Our hotel room had a kitchenette, so we went to the store looking for some food to put in there. It was within a day or two of Halloween, and every aisle end display was full of bags of candy. I ignored those. But then…a bakery table. And on this table were Halloween decorated cupcakes, cakes, and cookies, all on sale! I was riveted by the beautiful dinner-plate sized chocolate chip, decorator-iced cookies with witches and goblins and ghosts sugar-smeared on top, the kind that ideally you cut up into about 20 serving slices. Big Ass Cookies!! My triggers converged. The cookie called to me. I bought it. Just the one. Of course, it was bigger than godzilla’s head.

I bought it, but I didn’t eat it. Yet. Then it was time to go home. I should have tossed it. I couldn’t. I put it in my suitcase, at a risk of making my suitcase over the weight limit–because it was already close. I figure this cookie weighed 2 pounds. I crammed it, this giant, hurkin’ cookie into my suitcase. And I brought it home. And I opened it. It had gotten squished. I didn’t care. I ate a piece. A big piece. Probably about two–three servings worth–THEN I tossed it. Nowhere no how is eating sugar-iced chocolate chip cookies on my low carb plan.

But, here’s the key to success. I began again. On my healthy lifestyle eating program. I had gained a few pounds while on vacation in Chicago, that “indulgence” thing kicking in–the last gasp being that cookie. Home again, I didn’t beat myself up, I recovered. Back on track! In the past two weeks I’ve lost 8 pounds.

Here’s the deal. Hypnosis is FANTASTIC for installing in you, me, all of us these recovery strategies. How to keep going, in spite of momentary temptations or lapses or “failings.” To keep focus on the big ass picture of lean and healthy, the goals that drive us. If you find yourself dieting, and giving up, dieting and giving up, hypnosis will help you reframe a new lifestyle and keep it going. Long term success. Which is not necessarily perfection! I know whereof I speak!

I am 2 pounds right now off of my all-time low adult weight, and I know I’ll get there next week. And even lower. That’s right, during the holidays, while most others are packing on the weight, I’m slenderizing. If you’re ready for long term success with your weight, I’ll help! Now is the perfect time. Call me: (425) 564-8608.

Happy Holidays & Warm Regards,
Connie

http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net

http://www.loseweightseattle.com

http://www.seattlenlptraining.com

http://www.stopsmokingseattle.com

Hypnosis, Musings

Rewire the Brain Through Hypnosis

Written by Connie November 17, 2010June 8, 2013

Rewire Hi, Hypno Friends!

Well, Michael and I attended another hypnosis training event this past weekend, because it’s always a good idea to learn more and increase skills. It was fantastic! As you may have noticed from my conversations here (and that’s what this blog is, me thinking out loud), I CARE about hypnosis. And being good at it. I LOVE hypnosis. I live hypnosis. I want to share the good word on hypnosis. It is so positive and so powerful, so healing, and so mis-understood and underappreciated it the world. (You may enjoy my blog entry on “Hollyweird.”) https://mindworkshypnosis.net/hypnotizer/?p=202. People are influenced by movies, TV, popular culture–and those media do not always portray the reality of hypnosis.

So, I have two stories I want to share in this blog entry. 1. My recent efforts to combat “Hollyweird” by giving my professional input into a performance involving hypnosis and 2. More about my hypnosis training and the cool and valuable things I learned there–how to help rewire the brain, specifically for stroke survivors. However, rewiring is also applicable for so much more than that. We also enhanced our knowledge on how to alleviate pain with hypnosis, and “emergency hypnosis” for those life and death situations such as car crashes or dealing with burn victims.

Story 1. I had a fun new gig. I consulted for a theater company. They’re putting on a play in the Seattle area and it involves a scene of hypnosis. They wanted to get it right, be authentic, so they contacted me. I was happy to help. I met with the director and several actors and explained the truth about hypnosis, what it is, how it feels, what it can do. They acted out the scene for me and I critiqued. (So much fun!) More than just describing, I also hypnotized them to experience it live and first hand. Because, experiencing is believing. They’re believers now. In the positive power and magic of hypnosis. Yay!! Take that, Hollyweird! 🙂 And Hollyweird’s continuing saga of evil, thieving, murdering, insane hypnotists with their armies of hypno-zombie slaves.

Here’s an entertainment source putting a more accurate depiction out there. I approve! Here’s the play, by the way, if you’re interested. It opens this Friday: http://thatgtheatre.com/now.html. The play is “Shoreditch Madonna.”

Story 2. Don Mottin 001 Cropped Enhanced More about the training. It was two days of continuing education, put on by the NGH (National Guild of Hypnotists, which is the oldest, largest and most respected professional organization of hypnotists in the US) and Michael and I both attended. Yay! We now have more tools to help with pain management, emergency hypnosis, and helping stroke survivors. We learned to rewire the brain through hypnosis–which is something we do on a daily basis anyway, but now specifically targeted for helping stroke survivors. After a stroke, there may be a loss of movement, vision, cognitive function, and so on. These tools help stroke survivors to be more functional and regain capabilities! A worthy goal, and wonderful hypnosis tools.

Here’s a picture of me and the instructor, Don Mottin. Besides being a stroke survivor himself, He’s Vice President of the NGH. That’s the national group, and we were darn lucky to have him travel to Seattle to offer this training. It’s all in the family as Michael, my Michael, is President of our state’s local chapter of the NGH, the NGHWA. http://www.nghwa.org. One of the facets of the guild is to have a committment to continuing hypnosis education. This is some of that! Yes! Learning, in my model of the world, is ongoing and forever. That’s what I want and that’s what I do. Learn and utilize. My intention, of course, is to be the best and most helpful hypnotist I can be. More tools is good tools.

If you know someone who has suffered a stroke, please do consider hypnosis and hypnotherapy as a tool to help them rewire their brain. I know this works, and I’d be happy to work in conjuction with their medical MDs to enhance the healing process and regain their lives!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings, NLP

The Cup of Many Handles – or, Change is Easy

Written by Connie October 1, 2010June 9, 2013 1 Comment

Connie Brannan, Seattle's best hypnosis. — Connie Brannan, Licensed Trainer of NLP (tm)

A lot of people have questions about NLP. “What’s THAT?” They come to me for hypnosis, but rarely have heard of NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™. It’s a “high tech hypnosis,” according to my teacher and the inventor of those three letters, Dr. Richard Bandler. Michael and I are both Licensed Trainers of NLP, and it’s a part of everything I do hypnotically with clients in the same way that green is a part of grass. I don’t offer a brown, dried lawn, with some patches of green, maybe. My lawn is LUSH and alive and vibrant green.

NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™ is a way of looking at the world. A very useful, empowering way. It’s about how people think, how the mind works, and how change happens. About the very experience of life. How we create our personal worlds. And how we can easily create new worlds for ourselves, to be more the way we want them and less the way we don’t want them to be–mentally, physically, behaviorally, emotionally, spiritually. I love NLP more than anything else I’ve ever learned in my life.

NLP is based on our sensory experience of the world. We see through our eyes, and we also create pictures in our mind’s eye. We hear through our ears, and we create sound bites and audio loops and talk to ourselves in our mind’s ear. We physically touch things with our fingers and bodies, a table, a piece of fabric, and experience smooth, rough, texture, warmth, and so on. And we create feelings inside ourselves. Love, joy, fear. We can stick something in our mouth and taste it, and we can remember and relive tastes in our memory. We can smell something under our nose, and we can re-create smells in our mind’s nose.

My Nana made the BEST chocolate cake. I can taste it right now–in my imagination. 🙂 And smell it. And see Nana’s kitchen, and her face and her voice while offering it to me, and get a warm feeling of love from it. All at the same time. Memories are multi-sensual.

Here’s the secret of life and what NLP has discovered: those representations that we create in our minds, the pictures, sounds we play, etc. ARE our experience of life. They drive us. They are us. If we change the pictures and sounds, etc, we are changing our experience of life itself. We are changing our lives! Changing habits, thoughts, behaviors, bodies. And more! This idea creates an absolutely magical control that you can take over your life to get the life you want. NLP does that!

Regarding the multi-sensual nature of memory and experience, here’s how I describe some of my NLP work to clients. I say: imagine a cup filled with coffee. A nice ceramic Starbucks coffee cup. (I show them the very one sitting on my desk for ease of illustration.) It’s got a handle. Yes, it does. You pick it up by the handle. You’re holding the cup. Now, imagine that cup has several handles, protruding in different directions all around the sides of the cup. You could grab any of those handles. And you’ve still got a hold of the cup. You can raise it in the air. You can wave it around. You can drink from it. (Yay!) 🙂

It doesn’t matter which handle as they all are attached. Those handles are pieces of our representations of experience. One handle is images in the mind. One handle is sound bites. One handle is feelings. We have extra handles there for stuff we don’t even understand, yet. Like the 6th sense. Or energy. There’s an awful lot going on in a moment of life and in a memory, some things we perceive, some we don’t, but we are grabbing ahold of IT by any handle. Grabbing ahold of life!

If you come into my office wanting help with an irrational fear of spiders, for example, I may help you via helping you adjust pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells. I’ll grab a handle of the problem. Maybe it’s a picture. And we’ve got the fear. And we can tweak it out of existence by tweaking the picture. Maybe in your mind’s eye a spider is 10 feet tall, and 3 inches from your face. (That would frighten anyone!) If we take that picture and shrink it down to tiny, and push it off into the distance, the fear shrinks, too. We tweak the pictures you make in your own brain, the sounds, the smells, and so on to help you re-create your experience of life. Cool, huh? It works!! You can change your world. Absolutely, positively magic. NLP.

If you want to experience some of this magic, you know how. Call me and come on into my office. If you want to LEARN this magic, I can help you there, too. http://www.seattlenlptraining.com. Michael and I are damn good at this stuff, because we love it. And have trained with the best. Now, with all this talk of coffee cups, I need to go drink some! 🙂 Bye for now.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

The Cobbler’s Wife

Written by Connie September 4, 2010June 9, 2013

In my early days of learning hypnosis, I loved to have conversations with professional hypnotherapists. Professional hypnotists. Lucky for me, I found several very open and sharing professionals on a hypnosis forum. They answered my questions. Here’s one question I asked, and was answered.

I asked if hypnotists (and NLP people–those using that very specific brand of conversational hypnosis for positive change) were all supermen. And superwomen. Having worked on themselves to the point of perfect specimens of precision and excellence. No limiting beliefs, no bad habits, perfect bodies, perfect lives. These new tools seemed so miraculous to me (and they are) that I was “just askin’!” I was beginning to experience success with hypnosis for weight loss, and I wondered how far these professionals were able to use these tools in their own lives, to improve their own lives. The answer surprised me!

The consensus was, yes, we use them, but only a little, and only when there’s time. Which, apparently, there wasn’t. One friend told the story of the cobbler’s wife. He, the cobbler, the shoe-maker, was so busy making shoes for other people his own family was running around without. His wife had old, old tattered shoes. He was wearing old shoes, himself. Now, that’s sad. 🙁 🙂 I think it would have been of benefit to his business to make his wife some new, damn fine shoes. For her to wear, love, show off, dance in. People would notice. Her shoes would attract attention, and get him MORE business. “Wow, look at those beautiful shoes, where’d you get them?” “My husband makes these shoes!” “Wow, I’m coming in, I want shoes like that!” 🙂

I’ve decided to flaunt my shoes. Only they aren’t shoes. My personal success with hypnosis is manyfold, but the easily visible part is the weight loss. I want people to notice that hypnosis works! For weight loss and weight management.

Now, a cigarette-smoking hypnotist can probably help you with smoking cessation and an obese hypnotist can probably help you with weight loss–the tools are the same. But wouldn’t you rather work with someone who truly KNOWS and lives this success day by day, month by month, year by year? I would! Look at my shoes!! They sparkle!! I’ll make you a pair.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie on Dinner Cruise (2)

Musings

Honing Skills on my Birthday Month

Written by Connie July 7, 2010June 9, 2013 1 Comment

I like words. I like learning them, hearing them, using them. Words are “my thing” (which is terrific for a hypnotist). And they always have been my thing. Soon, I’ll be “honing.” My skills in hypnosis & NLP. My tools, my abililty to HELP. My FUN. Honing. Sharpening. Making better. I also like dictionary.com. 🙂 “To make more acute, intense or effective; improve; perfect: to hone one’s skills.” Absolutely! 🙂 It also means “To move or advance toward a target or goal.” Hone in.

I’m doing both!

Because here’s what I’m honing towards, here’s what I want. To be the absolute best changeworker and hypnotist/hypnotherapist possible. I already am the best in the Pacific Northwest, but the world’s a big place. I want to be one of the absolute best in the universe. So, I’m continuing my education, and studying with and learning from the best of the best. Modeling genius. It’s time intensive, it’s money intensive, it takes committment. But I’m doing it! Michael and I both!

We’re off for a couple weeks of more hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming trainings. In Orlando, Florida, with the co-originator of NLP, and in my opinion, the best hypnotist living, Dr. Richard Bandler. We go where the geniuses perform/teach and it’s not always nearby. We’re doing it! It’s my joy, my passion, as well as my comittment to honing! It’s also my birthday present to myself! (I’m a July baby!)

A committment to excellence. That’s a good thing! 🙂 I’m on Facebook (you can be my friend), and recently noticed an example of a differing attitude. A fellow hypnotist and NLP-er posted on one of my teachers’ pages whining (or so it appeared to me) that her training certification, the actual certificate she earned from him had an expiration date on it. Why, she asked. The answer is simple. Hypnosis and NLP is not something you learn once, and wham, done. I guess some people do approach a profession this way. “I know how to cut that piece of brick. I’m done.” Not me. No way, Jose. That certificate is only the beginning.

For me, learning is a never-ending unfolding process, and I’m ALWAYS desirous of improving my skills. One can ALWAYS be better. Sharper. More inspired. In the realm of the mind, there’s no hard and fast, “this is it.” There are more things to LEARN! When you bring in native intelligence and a passion for and committment to what you’re doing, and add the continued exposure to excellence, the continued honing (of something absolutely worth honing), you get someone who knows what they’re doing.

I know what I’m doing. And that means I can help you better, faster, more efficiently, more creatively than other people can. If you really want change, I certainly think you should seek out the best for that. Aren’t you worth it? Another wonderful mentor/teacher of mine said to me once: “It ain’t bragging, if it’s true.” I’m not bragging. I am extremely talented at this work, this art, and getting better all the time.

I hope to post here from Orlando and the trainings! Michael and I send warm (upper 90’s) greetings!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Happy Fourth of July!

Written by Connie June 26, 2010June 9, 2013

Now is the time to declare YOUR independence…from undesired habits, negative feelings, and limiting beliefs. Hypnosis is “the big guns” of change. If you’re ready, so am I. 🙂

Regards, Rappin’ Connie

Celebrate your independence from tobacco, and more, with Seattle's best hypnotherapy.

Musings

Limiting beliefs – Pop Them Like Bubble Wrap

Written by Connie June 20, 2010June 9, 2013 2 Comments

Connie Brannan, CHt. & Licensed Trainer of NLP

Well, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about sequins. About the girl I saw the other day. She was a barista, a coffee-maker. And she was working in a little kiosk-type coffee stand smack dab in the middle of a whole foods market. Kind of a drab setting. And she was wearing the most flashy, beautiful, black sequinned sweater. We’re talkin’ Vegas-style evening-out-on-the-town sequins. Elegant. Fancy. Fun. And playful. I looked at her and thought: She knows how to have fun, how to live and squeeze enjoyment out of life. Making coffee in sequins is more fun than making coffee in a cotton apron, I’ll bet. I could see that, in her face and in her movements!

And then, a quick mental morph/segue to my own closet. I have sequins, too. Silk jackets and shirts massively decorated and sequinned. Red with roses and trellises, black with textured clusters. Royal blue. I love them! But I wear them SO RARELY. Once in a blue moon. I’m “saving them for special.” They’re sitting there, gathering dust, as I wait for an “occasion” suitable for them. Always waiting. That has been (past tense) one of my limiting beliefs. “You need a special occasion to justify wearing sequins.” I just popped it–that belief. It just hit me. I could wear one of my sequinned jackets today! Why not? I could walk into that hotel, into that seminar room (I’m attending a training this weekend) wearing one of my flashy jackets. And that would be FUN.

Limiting beliefs. Those things that hold us back, make us catch our breath and feel LESS, less alive, less powerful, less fun. The “I can’ts.” Oh, I can’t do that! Pop them. Why not? What would happen if you could and did do this “I can’t do” thing?? Hmmm? Think about it. Imagine beyond the boundaries. That coffee-girl sure can! I wonder what unexpected coffee combinations/flavors she comes up with? I can tell, her life is rich and full-bodied.

Life should be fun. Massively fun. And it is. Make it more so. What’s holding you back? How much joy can you stand? It all comes down to running your own mind, and feeling what you want to feel. Hypnosis and NLP teach us how to do that. I’ve decided to feel good today. I’m wearing my sequins. 🙂

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Disney Hypnosis, Age Regression, and “Feelin’ good for no reason.”

Written by Connie March 9, 2010June 9, 2013

It was a “double whammy” of hypnosis! 🙂 Michael and I were in Orlando, Florida last week having the time of our lives in an advanced hypnosis training. It’s called NLP, but according to Dr. Richard Bandler, the father and co-creator of NLP, NLP is “high tech hypnosis.” As the inventor of the thing, he should know!! 🙂 And that’s what we were learning. More and more cool ways to run our minds the way we want them to run. Creating designer brains.

Bandler is a master hypnotist.

One of the cool things about hypnosis: you learn best while IN hypnosis. That’s my definition of hypnosis: an accellerated learning state. So, while we were sitting in this seminar room, the incredible and masterful Dr. Bandler was spinning his web of words and ideas and hypnotized us into learning more. Hypnotized us into a state of FEEL GOOD. Learning to feel good in our lives. As he puts it: “for no reason at all.” Feelin’ good for no reason at all. What an idea!! 🙂 Changing the neurology of our body to experience life differently. Talking to our conscious minds enough to keep us engaged and entertained and loving it, talking to our unconscious minds a WHOLE LOT more. Perhaps 5% conscious learning to 95% unconscious learning.

Bandler is a master hypnotist. So was Walt Disney. And the worlds he created are still hypnotizing us.

So, Michael and I were walking around in a wonderful learning trance for two weeks in Orlando, Florida. We had a day off between trainings, and we decided to go to Disneyworld! Layered with Bandler trance, we entered the “Magic Kingdom” and Disney Hypnosis took hold.

Talk about age regression! Another hypnotic phenomenon! Age regression: returning to an earlier time in your life, in your mind. When you do this or see this, the person changes before your eyes. Looks different, sounds different, and for sure, acts differently. Have you ever seen a grown man stomping his feet and having a tantrum?–I had bosses like that. How do you talk to a 3-year-old in an adult body? At Disney, our regressions were all good feelings!

Look at the “ears” picture above. How old are we? Look at this picture. How old is the person in the car, inside himself?

I asked Michael. How old are you in this picture? He said: “10, 12 years old.” 🙂 I can see that.

You know how a song can “imprint” into your mind, and keeps running and keeps running? We heard a song at Disney, and it imprinted on Michael. And he’s been singing it for a week or two now so it’s sure as shooting imprinting into me as well. “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.” One of Walt’s theme songs. It accompanies an exhibit called “Carousel of Progress.” Here are the words:

“There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of ev’ryday
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
And tomorrow’s just a dream away

Man has a dream and that’s the start
He follows his dream with mind and heart
And when it becomes a reality
It’s a dream come true for you and me

So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of ev’ryday
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Just a dream away”

I mean, he wakes up singing this thing into my ear! 🙂 The today of right now is clearly the tomorrow he was dreaming of big and beautiful and bright and filling him with joy in the morning. That’s a good thing–and quite different from his old “wake up” pattern! The man’s been hypnotized!

Obviously, Disney was onto something. Something compelling and powerful. Hypnosis! The hypnosis to feel good. What would it be like if we all could experience life from a state of automatic FEEL GOOD? What would it be like to enjoy life more and more, and feel like an 8 year old walking through the gates to Disneyland any time we wanted to? Fill ourselves with passion and excitement, enthusiasm and joy? What would it be like to experience life in that way, anyday, everyday, for no reason?

Feel good for no reason. Expect great things. Why not? How much joy can you stand? I admire Walt’s hypnotic magic. I have some of my own, too. I help people do this. Bring good feelings where they’re useful and create positive change because when you feel differently you have different brain chemistry, and you think differently, you experience life differently, and you act differently.

Warm Regards & wishing you a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (and today),
Connie

Musings

“Too Stimulating”

Written by Connie January 28, 2010June 9, 2013

Hi, here’s another “musing.” 🙂 I was on the phone today with a potential student for my NLP and hypnosis trainings, and she informed me that my website, Mindworks Hypnosis was overly “stimulating.” I laughed out loud. I’m doubtful that she meant something positive by it, but I see that comment as a good thing! Oh, yes!

Stimulation is good in my book. According to dictionary dot com, stimulation means: arouse, activate, excite. Those words all sound beautiful to me. OVER-stimulation, well, that’s a sliding scale of subjectivity, and everyone is different. Some people would be overstimulated sitting quiety in a dark room, and others might be UNDER-stimulated while riding a roller-coaster at the fair. If there were no stimulation, life would be a flat line affair.

Arouse! Activate! Excite! Yes, that’s what I want my website to do! Yes, that’s what I want my words and stories to do, whether I’m teaching or working with clients, or just talking, or writing this blog. And yes, that’s what hypnosis itself does. Hypnosis = Stimulation. In hypnosis, we stimulate the unconscious mind–to see that things can be different, and better.

In discussions with hypno-friends we discuss this idea of sleep. Hypnosis as sleep. How erroneous can an idea be?? What hypnosis does is wake a person up!! Wake a person up to new possibilities and creativity and his/her own strengths and abilities to move in that direction. Wake up!! A lot of us live self-imposed limited lives, we trudge through a lot of our days on autopilot, with blinders on, robotic, zombie-like, and assuming what happened yesterday has to happen today and has to happen tomorrow. Boxes, walls, trapped! (I know this feeling, because I used to live this way, too.) Trapped! No way, Jose! Wake up!! Hypnosis wakes a person up to choice, and stimulates a recognition of the limitless vistas of possibility.

Things can be different. Beginning now.

I’m happy to stimulate people to see beyond, to imagine more. When that girl said my website was too “stimulating,” I think she meant it as a criticism. I take it as a giant compliment!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Hollyweird

Written by Connie December 15, 2009June 9, 2013 2 Comments

The Hypnotic Eye, 1960 Hypno-Horror movie

Last night, Michael and I watched a movie. THE HYPNOTIC EYE. 1960 hypno-horror ridiculousness. On the one hand, it is (unintentionally) hilarious–beyond ridiculous, to anyone who understands what hypnosis is and how it works. On the other hand, it is quite disturbing that this movie helped shape beliefs about hypnosis to minds of the 60’s and beyond!

This movie features sadistic, evil, murdering hypnotists! Not just one, but TWO evil hypnotists. Stage hypnotists. Working together on the unsuspecting public to torture and maim. Nice! (NOT!) The male hypnotist also had his hypno-seduction thing going on, too.

Visually, the movie was stunning, and evocative. Black and white. And not just black in color, I think they call it “film noir.” Nice spooky soundtrack.

Hollywood and popular culture sure like to malign hypnosis and hypnotists. It’s not just movies of the 60’s, swirling with hypnowheels and blinking electronics, men with dark, evil eyes and even evil-er intent, and swooning, helpless women. That mystique continues today in popular culture, movies, television. A mystique of fear, and darkness, mind control, and nasty intent. A recent episode of “The Mentalist” (massively popular US television show) featured an evil, murdering hypnotist as well. Also, thieving!

Of course, people who truly feel that hypnosis is dark and dangerous don’t come into my world. They aren’t coming to me for help. So, I really don’t know how prevalent this myth-bound attitude is. When I teach my courses at Bellevue College and with my own school, Mindworks NLP, and even one on one with clients, I ferret out these fear beliefs and counter with what I know is true. And clients and students experience that truth!

Hypnosis is a healing art. It’s natural, and positive. It’s one of the most natural and positive forces in the universe, and it’s not something “being done” to someone else. It’s what we can do inside ourselves and for ourselves. It’s a GOOD thing. Powerful, positive, healing, expanding, beautiful. Natural. We all go in and out of hypnosis every day. Reading, daydreaming, playing on the computer, writing, watching TV, just THINKING, it’s all hypnosis. I’ve always been a thinker, one prone to daytime dreaming, so I’ve always been a hypnotist. You are one, too. I have a hypnosis friend named Skip. He says we’re in a hypnotic state 24/7, only trading one trance for another. I like that idea, too!

So, while these movies and shows are surely entertaining, and might be “fun,” please take it with a grain or two or thousand grains of skepticism when you see, hear, or read in popular culture about all the evil hypnotists and their evil mind control power. Maybe it helps sell movies, but it ain’t reality.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Musings

Hypnowheel in the sky

Written by Connie December 10, 2009June 9, 2013

Watch this! It’s cool.

To me, it’s a very recognizable symbol. It’s a hypnowheel… of light! I think it’s a message, that HYPNOSIS WORKS! And those who saw it live or see it in video form, should get that message deep deep deep into their unconscious. Yes, very cool!

Michael says: it’s the universe trying to hypnotize us. 🙂 If so, I say: bring it. Hypnosis is a positive experience, always.

Warmest regards in these chill times (WINTER),
Connie

Hypnosis, Musings

Why Halloween is for Hypnotists

Written by Connie November 1, 2009June 9, 2013 2 Comments

Yesterday was Halloween. I was sitting in a Starbucks (they’re everywhere here, and a day without coffee is like a day without clouds) and Michael and I were drinking some coffee. A little boy and girl were there with Mom and ran past me squealing in delight when they saw me. Because I was wearing a colorful Halloween sweater with spiders and cats on it and and some “antennae” with orange fur and bats on my head. The boy and girl came up to me and informed me that they were, respectively, a princess and SUPERMAN!!! He told me that with passion and intense conviction, and although he wasn’t wearing his costume at the moment, I could see it. Yes, he was superman.

Knowing that you’re superman is a good thing.

Imagination is a freedom. To an adult, a chair may be just a chair–something to sit on. To a child, a chair may be so much more, a car, a pony, a fort to climb on, a spaceship. I remember as a kid walking on living room furniture (I don’t think my Mom was in on this game)–the game was NOT to touch the floor as the floor was a moat or a lava pit or sure death of some kind. Furniture was land, and safety.

I was also at the costume store the other day, and saw imagination in full play. Adult imagination. Adults looking at, trying on, playing with Halloween costumes, and props–faces alive with “let’s pretend.” Yes, I AM a pirate! There was a magic in that store, and a life and energy that you don’t find in everyday life. Simply: it’s imagination. One of the “rules of the mind” I teach in my Bellevue College course is that “imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” Yes, it is!

I love imagination. It’s the stock in trade of what I do. Helping people change, in ways they want to. But, before they can do that, they have to have the imagination to see life could be different. They must be able to imagine themselves cigarette-free, thinner, more successful, etc. That’s part of what I help them do–because I can see it for them. Clearly! A person can come into my office with 50 pounds to lose, and I can fully imagine them thinner and healthier and living life with full passion. It’s who they really are. I can “see” their face thinner. Their body slimmer. I can see twitching turn to calm. I can see happiness. Hypnosis helps me communicate what I know is true for them. When people are feeling “stuck” in their lives, partly it’s because they’ve stomped down this innate childlike ability to see the world as full of possibility and potential. I help people reconnect with that ability, and change is streamlined.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Musings

“I don’t believe it!”

Written by Connie October 20, 2009June 9, 2013 3 Comments

I made some different categories of “blog topics” here. This one is a MUSING! Not necessarily amusing. A musing. 🙂

Bellevue College Continuing Education Courses

I offer adult continuing education courses at Bellevue College, and last night was Part I of my “Building Confidence and Self-Esteem Through Self-Hypnosis” course. Fun stuff!! Hands on, minds on, very experiential. 🙂 We had a great turnout of interested parties (except one, story to follow) and they went deeply into hypnotic trance, several times, and got to experience and learn a LOT in a short amount of time. What is hypnosis, how does the mind work, what is the conscious mind, what is the unconscious mind, what is the truth vs. the myths of hypnosis, how can we use hypnosis to make personal change, what is a well formed goal…and more! LOTS of good stuff.

We all made and played with pendulums, learning more about the mind-body connection, and about the best language for communication with the unconscious. My class is heavy on participatory exercises and demos. Experiences. You learn more by experiencing trance, than just hearing it described. Which provides a better understanding, hearing about the taste of a ripe peach, or eating one, riding a bicycle, or reading about balance? It was a trance-filled evening. People were “into” it and loving it, and so was I. One of my goals in the world is promoting hypnosis and making people aware of it’s power and possibility. And that seemed to be going well…

However, there was one girl in my class who apparently wasn’t listening. Or, listening, but not believing. Have you ever seen a little kid sticking their fingers in their ears and chanting: “I don’t hear you, I don’t hear you, I don’t hear you…” This girl’s attitude was just like that. She interrupted the course, deep into the lecture to announce: “I don’t believe it. Any of it! I don’t believe in hypnosis.” She HAD gone into trance, but was denying the experience to herself. She was challenging me to “prove it” and “convince her” that “hypnosis is real.” She announced that she really didn’t want to be there, and was just taking the course for a credit. Convince her? No can do. This isn’t about mind control, this is about sharing cool things I know and offering experiences to those that are open to them. At that moment in time, she wasn’t open to learning. Nor was I going to direct my energies to changing her.

I KNOW the power of hypnosis and how it has improved my life a thousand-fold. And I see and experience daily how it’s helping my clients and students to live more fully and enjoyably, and change in ways they want to change, ways that make sense for their lives. It’s about expanding the realms of human potential and human excellence. It’s about accellerated learning. It’s about connection with the deepest and best parts of ourselves. How do I communicate that to someone with their fingers stuck in their ears? I can’t.

If you’re here, reading this blog, your ears are open! Your mind is open! And I appreciate that! I appreciate your openness to learn more. I hope I can be a good representative for this thing called hypnosis. I’m still learning, as well. One thing is deep, deep, deeply true. I love it! 🙂

Warm Regards,
Connie

Musings

What you focus on expands

Written by Connie October 12, 2009June 9, 2013

One of the key things I do in my hypnotherapy practice is help people find choices. More choices than they had hitherto seen! And key to that is the idea of being “at cause” in the world rather than “at effect.” I help shift people from victim mode (things happen to me) to creator mode (I make things happen that I desire). It’s incredibly powerful.

Before change can happen, whether it be habit changes like fingernail biting or smoking cessation, or self image shifts, belief shifts, positive changes of many and any varieties, this inner shift has to happen. At cause: My life is how I make it. I control events. And it’s getting better all the time. At effect: I’m stuck, bad things happen to me, I’m just “unlucky,” and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s the difference between feeling (and thus being) weak, and being empowered.

When I successfully made this shift, I changed my whole life. New body, new career, new joy. It’s a worthwhile transition!

One of my friends and early hypnosis/NLP teachers, Skip Carson, helped me to do just that. Shift my mindset. Here’s what he said:

Creating Your Own Reality By Choice Is The Truth.

You Choose Exactly How You Want Your Reality To Be.
Whether You Believe It Or Not, It Still Is How It Works.

The More You Dicover Who You Are The More You Realize The Limitlessness Of Choices Available, And The Unbounded Possibilities That Exist.

Choose That Which Brings You The Deepest Experience Of Gratitude And Love.

Life Is Yours To Create The Way You Wish, Better Make It Something You Enjoy.

Look Within Yourself – How Much Joy Can You Stand?

What You Focus On Expands.

What Do You Want More Of?

I encourage you to look at Skips musings, above, and adopt them as your own as you are able. Because…he’s right. Absolutely right! I printed those out, attached them to my computer monitor where they remained for about a year and studied them daily, thought about them, and absorbed them. Do you likewise!

Stay turned for one of my upcoming “Monthly Trance” newsletters, you can sign up at http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net, where I cover this topic in more detail and offer one or two useful exercises to actually help you make this shift of mind.

Warm Regards,

Connie